SOURCE: “Noam Chomsky,” in The Progressive, Vol. 63, No. 9, September, 1999, pp. 33-7.

In the following interview, Chomsky discusses critical disapproval of his views, media manipulation, Gulf War propaganda, inconsistent and hypocritical condemnations of international human rights offenders, and American politics.

Noam Chomsky, longtime political activist, writer, and professor of linguistics at MIT, is the author of numerous books and articles on U.S. foreign policy, international affairs, human rights, and the media. His works include Manufacturing Consent, with Ed Herman (Pantheon, 1988), Deterring Democracy (Verso, 1991), World Orders, Old and New (Columbia University, 1994), Profit Over People (Seven Stories, 1999), and Fateful Triangle (South End, revised edition, 1999). His latest book is The New Military Humanism (Common Courage, 1999).

I first wrote to Chomsky around 1980. Much to my surprise, he responded. We did our first interview four years later. We've done scores since then, resulting in a series of books as well as radio programs...